• The antibiotic resistance pattern of pathogens isolated from the culture of endotracheal tube secretions of ICU patients hospitalized in Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital (2013-2018)
  • mohammad behnampour,1,* Masoum khoshfetrat,2
    1. Student of Medicine, Students Research Committee, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
    2. Doctor of Medicine (MD), Fellow of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM), Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Khatam-Al-Anbiya Hospital, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.


  • Introduction: Nowadays, one of the most serious problems of the world’s health is the increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance of hospital pathogens that result in the increased mortality rate of the patients. Thus, it is necessary that all hospital wards (especially the ICU) monitor its antibiotic resistance pattern every now and then, so that the antibiotics will be prescribed more properly. The present study was thus conducted to determine the antibiotic resistance pattern of pathogens isolated from the culture of endotracheal tube secretions of ICU patients hospitalized in Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital from 2013 to 2018.
  • Methods: The present cross-sectional study is a descriptive one that was conducted in 2018 in Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital of Zahedan. In this study, the medical records of 1387 patients hospitalized in ICU (having the inclusion criteria) were investigated. The inclusion criteria are the age of higher than 18 years, being intubated for at least two days, and the patient’s survival five days after being intubated. The information recorded on the information forms include age, gender, the type of microorganism isolated from the culture environment of ETT secretions, antibiotic resistance and sensitivity, the duration of using ventilator, and hospitalization cause. After determining the general frequency of the positive culture of ETT secretions, the patients’ data were then analyzed in SPSS-16 in terms of frequency percentage, mean, and standard deviation.
  • Results: The general frequency of the positive culture of ETT secretions was 1128 patients (81.3%); 807 patients (71.5%) were males and 321 patients (28.5%) were females. The mean age of the patients was 44.66 ± 21.39 years. ETT culture, 933 patients (82.7%) were Gram-negative bacteria, 191 patients (16.9%) were Gram-positive bacteria and 4 patients (0.4%) were Mix-Growth. The most frequent gram-negative bacteria was Acinetobacter baumannii (37.2%) that had the highest antibiotic resistance to Meropenem (95.1%) and the lowest antibiotic resistance to colistin (sensitivity: 99.5%). Moreover, The most frequent gram-positive bacteria was Staphylococcus Epidermidis (50.3%) that had the highest antibiotic resistance to Meropenem (85.7%) and the lowest antibiotic resistance to Vancomycin (sensitivity: 92.2%). The mean duration of using ETT was 17.96 ± 10.99 days; stroke was the most common cause of hospitalization (533 cases, 49%).
  • Conclusion: Given the findings of the present study, it was indicated that colistin was an effective antibiotic in the treatment of resistant gram-negative strains. Moreover, with regard to different kinds of staphylococcus strains, the highest allergy was related to Vancomycin. If there is any doubts in this regard, the selected antibiotic will be experimental.
  • Keywords: ETT, Antibiotic resistance, ICU